NYP: “Disgusted with the subway? Well, chew on this: Since 2014, the city has forked over more to its pension funds than it has for building and repairing schools, parks, bridges and, yes, subways — combined.
In fact, the city’s current predicament is the result of benefit increases that state lawmakers have showered on retired city workers. The pension sweeteners added just in 2000 alone cost the city $13 billion over the next 10 years.”

“These two factors (over-optimistic assumptions and ever-greater benefits) are why the city’s yearly contribution to the funds has had to mushroom nearly sevenfold, from $1.4 billion in the 2002 fiscal year to that $9.6 billion for fiscal 2018.”

The states that are fiscally unstable are huge environmental protectionists.